Understanding Naming Convention of Line Cards in Nexus 7000: -

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1.There are two kind of I/O modules or Line Cards in Nexus - M Series and F Series. These are feature
rich and feature specific cards.

2. F-Series were initially only Layer 2 supported. However, Now Third Generation F Series Modules are
also available which support Routing as well.

3. M-Series support Layer 2 and Layer 3 capabilities. e.g. You will be able to run OSPF, EIGRP and BGP
etc.

4. We can derive lot of information from the name of the Line Card. We will take example of N7K-
F248XT-25E to understanding

• Means this module is specifically designed for Nexus 7000 series Chassis. However, you should
refer the datasheet of Particular chassis to make sure that this Line card is supported or not. Not
all of the N7K chassis may support it.
• F Means this line card is F-Series. If it was M then it will mean M Series.
• 2 means It is second generation Line Card. In this case Second Generation, F series I/O Module.
• 48 means this Line Card will have total of 48 ports.
• X means Largest port in terms of Bandwidth will be 10GE. Other options are
• F = 40 GE, C= 100 GE, G = 1 GE. This line card may have mix ports like 1G,10G.
• T here is port type = RJ45, Other options are 2= x2, K= Cisco CPAK, P =
SFP+, Q = QSFP+, S= SFP and T = RJ45
• 2 here is the version of Fabric Module being used. There are two kind of fabric modules i.e. 1
and 2. Fabric module is an interconnect between the Line Cards. When you insert line cards in
the chassis, then you also need to have Fabric Module.
• FAB1 provides 46Gbps bandwidth while FAB2 provides 110Gbps. You need to make sure that
you choose that fabric module which can let Line Cards function at its full capacity. e.g. if your
Line card bandwidth is 110 , in that case, you can either use 3 FAB1 modules or 1 FAB2 module.
• One Fabric Module provides bandwidth to each Line Card. If you have 7018 nexus chassis, that
means you have 16 line cards. If you are using FAB1 then it means this FABRIC module will
serve 46Gbps to each of the 16 Line Cards.
• You need to check datasheet to understand how many fab modules can fit in one chassis.

RAKESH RAKESH RAKESH

 • 5 here means that we should have 5 fabric modules for the card to operate at maximum
capacity.
• E here means It is F2E line card. There will be either E or nothing. E is used only with F series
Line Card. L means XL which means this line card has extended hardware resources like more
ipv4/v6, more mac addresses, Access List etc.
• Each M Series supports vPC ie. virtual port channel. VPC is known as Multi Chassis port channel.
• FEX, QinQ , MPLS and OTV features are supported in all of the present M Series Modules.
• All of the M Series Modules have Interoperability with F Series in the same VDC. It means if we
have both M Series and F series interfaces in Same VDC, will there be any issues? Answer is No
issues.
• FEX is supported with all F Series modules,
• FabricPath is supported with all F series Modules
• Layer 3 Interface is supported with all F Series Modules.
• FCoE is supported with all F Series Modules.
• M Series Interoperatibility is supported with F Series I/O cards.
• Line Cards handle the data plane traffic that is why they are known as I/O Cards.

THANK YOU

RAKESH RAKESH RAKESH